How to harness the moon in your garden

With the moon in its waxing (rising) phase, it is a great time to be planting leafy crops. These crops do well to be planted at this phase of the moon as it is a time of increased light and stronger sap flow.

I am a great believer in working with the moon in my life and especially in my garden, it works incredibly well.

By working with the phases of the moon, the plants are less stressed and you are working with the correct energy, helping plants and seeds to grow faster than when you plant on the wrong time of the moon.

I have worked in the garden this way for nearly 30 years now and the benefits have really paid off. I have a lot of people on my courses who say “I don’t have time to plant by the moon”! In my opinion it is like anything; once you get yourself into the right rhythm and head space then things come with ease. I would say if you were a beginner to planting by the moon, give it a go, give it time and after a few months you will be in the flow and your garden will love you for it.

Over the past week here on Waiheke we have had all four seasons, with hail the size of my pinky finger nail, cold southerly and easterly winds and two solid days of good rain and then intense heat. I must say, for me, living on an island where we are dependent on tank water, I was really grateful for the rain. Straight after, I went out and added an extra layer of mulch so as to keep the moisture in the soil. For me on Waiheke Island, this next week would be the last week of planting before it becomes too hot. I will be planting some zucchini and the last of my lettuce seedlings tomorrow.

I can’t stress enough about pest and disease this time of year and a regular feeding programme.

Take the time to look at your plants and notice if there are curling leaves and microscopic eggs under the leaves or, if they have suffered damage from the wind, rain or hail, I would remove damaged leaves. I have four experimental beds going at the moment to see which ones can tolerate the least amount of water over the summer months, results to follow.

I wish you all joy and happiness in your gardens.

By the time you are reading this I will be in Thailand on my way to the Saraburi Farm which is an EM (effective microbe) research centre. Plenty more stories to come!